


The Search for the Oracle's Stone

by SummerInAmsterdam



Series: EtNuary [16]
Category: Escape the Night (Web Series)
Genre: Adventure, Everyone else is their role in this universe too, Exploration, I freakin' love Liza man, Indiana Jones References, Liza's actually an explorer in this universe, Temple, That Boulder from Indiana Jones, This is basically a more exciting version of holiday shopping or something like that, Treasure Hunting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-19
Updated: 2020-01-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:48:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22313533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SummerInAmsterdam/pseuds/SummerInAmsterdam
Summary: An explorer ventures into the Hidden Temple of the Oracle's Stone to find something precious to give to a good friend.EtNuary Day 16: Liza Koshy
Relationships: The Explorer | Liza Koshy & The Savant | Joey Graceffa (mentioned), The Explorer | Liza Koshy & everyone (mentioned)
Series: EtNuary [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1589350
Comments: 10
Kudos: 13
Collections: EscapetheNightRealworldAU





	The Search for the Oracle's Stone

Liza poked her head out from behind the brush, and there it was. Standing tall and proud right in front of her in all its glory was the legendary Hidden Temple of the Oracle’s Stone. She’d come all the way to central America for that puppy, and she wasn’t leaving without it.

She’d heard legends of the Oracle’s Stone ever since she was a kid. According to the legend, a great Emperor had an oracle who was one of the most trusted members of his court. The oracle was supposedly able to accurately predict anything the Emperor needed to know every time. Be it an enemy army getting ready for an invasion, how the crops would look through the rest of the season, or even solutions to help the townspeople. This was done with the help of an enchanted crystal that the oracle would consult for her prophecies. After the oracle passed, the crystal lost its power, and the Emperor's court had it hidden away in a temple deep in the jungles of Guatemala. Many great explorers have tried to find the temple and retrieve the Oracle's Stone, but none would ever prevail.

Until  _ today _ , that is!

Liza grinned excitedly as she studied the temple. This place was gonna be so cool! She’d explored her fair share of temples, as well as a wide arrange of other things! Abandoned ships, caverns, all that good stuff. And every time she searched through one of those bad boys, she always found whatever she was looking for. She even found cool stuff she wouldn’t have expected to find.

She wasn’t looking for the Stone for herself, though. Since it’s powers didn’t really work anymore, it was essentially just a regular old crystal. Fortunately for her, she had a certain good friend who absolutely  _ loved _ crystals. It was the least she could do for him. She couldn’t wait to see the look on Joey’s face when she gave him that beautiful, shiny rock!

But first, she needed to clear a little bit of the brush in front of her. She opened up her satchel and pulled out a boomerang with blades at the two ends. That thing really came in handy - she’d have to thank Lauren again for it. As an engineer, her friend, Lauren, made all kinds of things. So when Liza asked her for something to aid her with her quest, the blonde-haired girl was more than happy to help.

Liza held the boomerang up and said, “Fly swift and true, little one.” She gave it a little kiss for luck, reeled back, and tossed it through the vines.

As Liza had hoped, the boomerang made quick work of the vines. It sliced through them like a bunch of long, green lines of butter, clearing a path for her. It effortlessly flew back to Liza, who leaped up and caught it in the center.

“Good job, little guy!” she told the boomerang as she stuffed it back into her satchel.

With the vines cleared, she was able to easily make her way to the temple. She mounted the stairs leading up to the entrance, and stopped to take a look inside. There were some torches along the walls, but aside from that, she couldn’t see anything.

That was fine with her. She never really paid much mind to Andrea’s warnings about those things - Liza  _ loved _ dark doorways!

Liza picked up a lit torch from the wall of the passageway and made her way through. She tried to listen for some kind of sound, but she couldn’t hear anything other than a bit of water dripping from somewhere. The light from the outside slowly got darker and darker, making it a little more unsettling.

The passageway soon opened up to a chamber. It was certainly spacious; it must have been at least twenty cubic feet. It seemed to be some kind of treasury, decorated with chests, and high piles of pearls, jewels, and gold.

Liza’s heart lit up. There was so much treasure in there, the Oracle’s Stone must have been there, too! This was easy!

Hold up. It was  _ too  _ easy.

This was a “hidden temple” for a reason, and Liza’s had plenty of experience with hidden temples to know that she was bound to run into one thing: traps.

So, knowing her situation, she did the most logical thing she could think to do. She placed the torch on a bare wall bracket, and started clapping her hands and yelling, “Hey! Hey, temple! Where are your traps?! Come on, show me whatcha got!”

The temple didn’t respond.

“Ah, the ol’ silent treatment, eh?” Liza’s voice echoed back at her a bit as she spoke. “Alright, I guess there’s  _ noooothing heeeeerreee… _ ”

_ The temple can’t talk, Liza, _ she thought to herself.

She pulled out a map from her satchel, and held the map up to the light to make it easier to see. All it took was a quick study of the map to confirm her suspicions. While this chamber was definitely full of treasure, she hadn’t quite reached the Stone yet. In fact, when Liza looked around the chamber, she could see the entryway to another hall that lead to the  _ actual  _ chamber where the Stone was kept.

That was the good news. The bad news was that the entryway was about fifteen feet from the floor. Fortunately, the  _ other _ good news was that she had a handy little grappling hook for these kinds of situations.

Liza pulled out her hook in preparation to use it, when it occurred to her that she was surrounded by a bunch of coins that she’d never seen before. She didn’t really care to take anything back with her, but she was curious. What kind of currency was that stuff? She picked up a coin from one of the piles to try and inspect it.

That was a mistake.

The moment she picked up the coin, she heard a loud rumbling sound all around the chamber. Above her, four large passageways opened up, and out of each of them came heavy streams of water. It was falling so quickly in so much quantity that the water was up to her ankles in a matter of seconds. She could feel how freezing the water was from inside her boots.

“ _ Nope! _ ” Liza screamed. “I am  _ not _ gonna drown in here!”

Good thing she already had an exit in sight!

She pocketed the coin in case she needed it later, and gripped her grappling hook. She pointed it upward toward the passageway that hopefully lead somewhere where there wasn’t any water. She pulled the trigger, and the device jolted back a bit as the hook shot toward the ceiling. The hook embedded itself into a stone that jutted out above the exit.

Just in time, too. The water was already up to her knees!

She released the trigger, and the device yanked her out of the water. Her curls flew backwards as she flew through the air and up to the exit. She swung into the passageway as the hook came detached from the stone. It returned to the device as she was propelled into the hall. She curled up into a somersault, letting herself roll down the hall a little bit before regaining her bearings.

“ _ Whew! _ ” Liza exclaimed as she hopped back up to her feet. “ _ Man, _ I love this thing!”

She stashed the grappling hook in her bag and jogged onward. She wasn’t sure how much water that trap would release, but she had a feeling it wouldn’t stop anytime soon! Her feet were cold and clammy from the water getting into her shoes, but that was the last thing she had to worry about right now. She had to hurry up and get that stone before it caught up with her!

The bad news was that she didn’t have her torch anymore. The good news, however, was that there was a bit of light in the halls, probably coming from the Stone’s chamber.

As she ran, she soon felt her foot sink a little bit into the floor. She slowed to a stop and looked back, wondering what the heck that just was.

“Wait…” she said to herself. “Was that a pressure plate?

She heard a sound like something unlocking and opening up nearby.

“Yep, that was a pressure plate!”

She quickly ducked out of the way with a shocked “ _ WHOO! _ ” as four poison darts embedded themselves in the wall inches away from her.

“Time to  _ dart  _ on outta here!”

(Look, there’s never a bad time for a pun! Not even when you’re about to face a whole bunch of poison darts!)

She dashed down the halls as more darts started to fire at her. She sprinted onward, leaping and flipping and dodging until she rounded a corner. One last dart just barely hit her in the back, but she managed to escape without a scratch.

She kept running for a little bit until she was about to enter another chamber. Liza immediately skidded to a halt as she looked down at the chamber’s floor. Well, more like lack thereof.

It seemed that this entire chamber was almost just a giant pit! From what Liza could see, the pit lead into complete darkness. The only acception was a small round sliver of a floor in the center of the chamber, risen above the bottom of the pit. There was also a rickety looking bridge leading from Liza’s hallway to the center, and then to another exit on the other side.

And she quickly saw why it was made the way it was. There, sitting on a pedestal on the raised floor, was the Oracle’s Stone.

Liza pumped her fists excitedly. “ _ Yes! _ ”

It was right over there! She was so close! All she needed to do was cross the bridge, grab the stone, get out of the temple, and she’d be home free.

The bridge was held together by ropes, and the bottom was lined with wooden planks. It had to be centuries old. Luckily, Liza was pretty small, so hopefully it wouldn’t collapse under her. She gripped the ropes lining the bridge like some kind of railing, and started her way across. She could hear the ropes struggling a bit under the extra weight, but she seemed to be doing okay.

She was almost across, when a particularly worn plank snapped under her foot. She let out a yelp, but kept a tight grip on the ropes as her foot fell through the bridge. She knew the classic “don’t look down” rule like the back of her hand, but it didn’t stop her from instinctively looking down.

She carefully reached into her pocket and pulled out her coin. She then held it out over the pit, and dropped it. The sound of a faint  _ ting! _ told her the pit wasn’t as deep as she thought, but it was still a pretty long drop. She squinted as she stared down to the floor and saw that it was… moving?

Liza shuddered. She realized she was suspended directly above a giant pit of big, black tarantulas.

“Tarantulas…” she hissed. “Why did it have to be tarantulas?”

Liza  _ hated _ spiders, especially tarantulas. There must have been  _ thousands  _ of them down there!

She pulled her foot back up and forced herself to look back at the Stone. She couldn’t afford to let those little bastards get to her, not when she was so close! She got moving again, picking up the pace a bit.

She finally reached the end of the bridge, and there is was. The Oracle’s Stone was even more mesmerizing up close. The little light in the chamber gave the Stone an enchanting, luminescent pinkish-blue glow. 

Liza started hopping up and down from excitement. “Yes! I found it!”

As excited as she was, Liza had to remember a very important part of expeditions like this. Whenever she found what she was looking for in a temple like the one she was in, there was usually a routine that she’d come to call, “I found it! What the-? Oh,  _ hell  _ no!” The long and short of that routine was: she’d find the treasure, pick it up, then something weird would happen, and a final trap would spring itself onto her.

Well, she’d already just faced a few traps anyway. Might as well get it over with, eh?

She slowly reached over to the Stone, carefully lifted it up off of the pedestal, and waited for something to happen.

She waited, and waited…

No dice. Silence all around the chamber.

“Huh. I guess I’m-”

All of a sudden, a familiar rumbling sound came from behind her.

“What the-?” Liza exclaimed.

She whirled around to see that the water from the treasure chamber was spilling out of the passageway and into the pits below. It was filling up slowly but surely, bringing all of the tarantulas up with it.

“Oh,  _ hell  _ no!”

Wait, could tarantulas swim? Whatever, Liza wasn’t about to get close enough to find out!

She stuffed the Oracle’s Stone into her satchel, and dashed across the rest of the bridge to the other side. Ricketiness, be damned! Her adrenaline was  _ goin’ _ _!_ A few boards fell into the water below, but she managed to make it across.

She got what she came here for. Now she needed to skedaddle! Liza darted down the passageway to hear yet  _ another _ rumbling sound right behind her. She dared to take a peek to see a boulder making its way towards her!

_ How many traps does this place have?! _ she hastily thought.

She kept scurrying down the passageway, making twists and turns as the boulder gained on her. Eventually, she saw a bit of light coming from somewhere at the end of the tunnel. As she kept moving, she saw the jungle outside.

She picked up the pace as the boulder got closer. She could almost feel the wind of it as it was spinning. She yanked her grappling hook out of her bag and fired it at the trees, hoping it would snag onto a branch. She kept moving, trying not to stop and lose momentum as she approached the edge, and threw herself out of the exit in the nick of time. A loud  _ CRASH! _ rang out from behind her as the boulder slammed into the doorway.

She instinctively screamed as she kept a tight hold on her grappling hook and swung into the trees. When the hook released, she fell and stumbled back onto the ground. She pushed herself back up to her feet, trying to calm herself down from that crazy adrenaline high.

And then she started leaping up and down and whooping.

“ _ That was awesome! _ ” she yelled.

Man, what a freakin’ work out! That was probably the coolest thing she’d done all week!

When Liza finally calmed down, she pulled the Oracle’s Stone out of her bag one last time. It looked even more iridescent in the sunlight. Oh, yeah. Joey was gonna  _ love  _ this thing! She stuck the Stone back into a section of her satchel that she was using to protect the other gifts for the rest of her friends. Next up was to venture to the Canyon of Claws and Teeth to get that amethyst necklace for Gabbie.

Just another day in the life of an explorer!

**Author's Note:**

> I figured our favorite little brown girl could use a little adventure. This was pretty fun to write! :)
> 
> Also, as a wise man once said... _GRAPPLING HOOK!!!_


End file.
